Dr. Melody Glenn was a burned-out emergency physician who had grown to resent the large population of opioid-dependent patients passing through her ER. While working at a methadone clinic, she realized how effective harm reduction treatments could be and set out to discover why they weren’t used more broadly. That’s when she found Dr. Marie Nyswander.

In the 1960s, Dr. Nyswander defied the DEA and medical establishment to co-develop methadone maintenance as a treatment for heroin addiction. According to some addiction specialists, its discovery could be considered as monumental as the discovery of penicillin. Yet, it still carries a stigma today.

As the United States continues to struggle with opioid and fentanyl use, Dr. Glenn shares Dr. Nyswander’s legacy and important lessons that can be used in dealing with today’s addiction crisis.

Dr. Melody Glenn is an author and associate professor of addiction and emergency medicine at the University of Arizona. She graduated with her M.D. from The University of Southern California, completed her emergency medicine residency at Maricopa Medical Center, and earned her EMS fellowship from The University of California, San Francisco.

Moderator Margaret Juhae Lee is the author of Starry Field: A Memoir of Lost History. She received a Bunting Fellowship from Harvard University and a Korean Studies Fellowship from the Korean Foundation in support of research for her book. Previously, she was an editor for the Books and the Arts section at The Nation magazine.